Him by Carey Heywood (reading strategies book .txt) 📕

tired, and then I yawn again. That doesn’t seem to work. Finally, twenty dudes later, I ask him if I can use his bathroom to get ready for bed. Their apartment is a double master with the living room and kitchen between the two bedrooms, and each bedroom has its bathroom. It’s a cool set up but lacks a standalone guest bathroom.

I grabbed my PJs and toiletry bag and follow Jared into his room. Very awkward. His room is cool, though. He has boards all over the place. Some are leaned up against the far corner of his room. Others are mounted on the wall above his bed and over his dresser. Seeing them like that, it strikes me that they’re not unlike art. His room is neat even though his bed isn’t made. It smells nice, like aftershave, and it’s faint, but I swear I can smell Febreeze. Jared walks me to the bathroom door and points out where the spare towels are before leaving me so he can set up the pull out.

His bathroom is also clean for a boy. I laugh when I see how much hair product he has, considering his hair is so short. I go ahead and take a shower since I’m kind of nervous about access to the bathroom the next morning. I’m just stepping out of the shower when I hear a knock on the door. I hurriedly pull on my PJs and crack the door.

"Everything okay?" I ask.

"Dude, the shower head leaks unless you jiggle the knob. You can't hear it with the fan on. I wanted to show you what to do before I forgot."

I open the door and step further into the bathroom to make room for him. He demonstrates proper knob jiggling.

"Why don’t you have maintenance fix it?" I ask when he's done.

"Oh, I gave up on them. They've been up here a bunch of times. Once I figured out how to make it stop on my own, I figured it was pointless to call them again."

"That makes sense," I concede, brushing my hair.

I inhale when Jared leans over and smells my hair. He straightens and shrugs. "I like the way your hair smells."

I blush. "Um, thanks. I'm just going to brush my teeth and go to bed if that's cool."

Jared nods and walks out into his bedroom. He doesn’t shut the door behind him, so I brush my teeth quickly and follow him.

"So tomorrow are you still able to give me a lift to my meeting? It's on the early side, and I don’t want to put you out. You’re already letting Sawyer and me crash here, which is so cool of you."

"Dude, it's my pleasure. What time do you want me to wake you up? I can set my alarm."

After we're clear on all the details, I get settled in the living room. As I drift off to sleep, I wonder what my problem is. Jared is a super hot guy, who I think might be into me, but I just can't stop thinking about Will.

~*~

My meeting goes amazingly. I had spent a lot of time preparing my proposal, and I think it paid off. They seem really interested in my ideas and the services I’m able to offer. The coolest part of my job is working with small business owners. They are so passionate about what they do every day and figuring out employee-sponsored plans is usually not something they want to think about. In fact, most of the time, it scares them, and I love to see the look in their eyes when they realize I can take all of that stress away and free up their time to do what they started their business for in the first place. Growing up, I never thought this would be my dream job, but I loved helping people and knowing what I’m doing makes me feel really good about myself.

Jared is in his Tahoe waiting for me outside the office building where my meeting was. My ear to ear grin clued him in that the meeting went well so he took me out to lunch to celebrate. I try telling him that even though the meeting went well there was no guarantee that they would actually hire me. It is only fifteen minutes after I said that when they call me. I feel rude for taking the call while Jared and I were at lunch but Jared told me I was crazy and to answer the phone. My mouth drops open when they tell me they loved my proposal and wanted to hire me. Since they were able to decide so quickly there was a chance I would be able to get all of their paperwork together that week.

When I hang up with them, Jared walks over to my side of the booth and gives me a hug. I start crying, which makes him nervous. I have to tell him ten times they’re happy tears before he believes me. Why am I not attracted to him? He’s cute and sweet and smells good. I could do way worse. Jared laughs at me the whole ride back to his apartment as I happy dance in my seat. I cannot wait to tell Sawyer how my meeting went and that they have already hired me. That has never happened on the same day I give my presentation. Sawyer and Caleb are eating nachos in the living room when we get back, her legs in his lap.

There’s a close call with a plate of nachos that Caleb manages to catch with his good hand as Sawyer jumps up to hug me. She wants us to all go out tonight and celebrate, but I put her off until the next night because I still have another meeting the next day. Once the initial rush of adrenaline wears off, I manage to corner Sawyer in the kitchen.

"Not cool last night. Just saying."

She hugs me. "I'm so sorry we ditched you guys